Generally, optical connectors are utilized to couple information that has been transduced from electrical signals to optical signals in a transmitter, and from optical signals to electrical signals in a receiver. Therefore, they can be useful in connecting many different types of complex electronic based systems or environments. Typically, there is a source or transmitter to send and a receiver to collect the signals. Optical connectors are useful for isolating electrical interference from ground planes. For example, optical connectors are not effected by skin effects and switching noise. Also, signal integrity and clock skew are improved with optical connectors. In addition, optical connectors provide access to wide operational bandwidths that allow increased information transfer. Optical connectors are important in connecting many optical fibers spatially positioned in linear arrays, hereafter referred to as opto-links.
In complex electronic based systems, specifically, information opto-links that require more than one computer processor to communicate with other computer processors, it is important that the connectors are correctly connected so that the opto-links are transferring the desired information. However, one drawback with such complex electronic based systems is that an incorrectly mated connector could render the whole system inoperable, or worse unreliable. Down-time in such systems is a costly penalty that must be reduced and furthermore, maintenance of such complex systems is expensive.
Complex electronic based systems that have utilized optical connectors in the past have also suffered from an inadequacy of controlling and manipulating information between the transmitter and the receiver. Information lost during a communication between the transmitter and the receiver can again render the complex electronic based system inoperable, inaccurate and unreliable. Valuable time lost during a faulty transmission of information is expensive and reduces efficiency in complex electronic computations.
Additionally, complex electronic based systems also suffer from an unknown real-time or present status of information transferred between the transmitter to the receiver; however, without a knowledge of the present status of the optical connector, fault diagnosis is required which wastes valuable time and reduces operational efficiency.
It is a purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved intelligent opto-bus including a first optical/electrical connector with a display.
It is another purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved intelligent opto-bus including a first optical/electrical connector with a display for providing a constant indication of the status of the opto-bus.
It is still another purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved intelligent opto-bus including a first optical/electrical connector with a display which substantially improves efficiency of the opto-bus and maintenance of a system utilizing the opto-bus.
It is a further purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved intelligent opto-bus including a first optical/electrical connector with a display which is easy to fabricate.
It is a still further purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved intelligent opto-bus including a first optical/electrical connector with a display which is highly versatile and can be quickly and easily modified and/or updated.